As Congress attempts to merge two national health care expansion bills, analysts are predicting that economic tumult and destruction will be among the results.

The Senate bill means insurers, particularly in small group and individual markets, will face an economic squeeze by limiting their profits while piling on new mandates for minimum coverage levels.

This financial squeeze will likely drive many insurers out of business, notes Richard Epstein, a law professor at the University of Chicago, stated.

The Washington Retail Association is opposed to health care expansion that will threaten the futures of businesses or significantly add to their costs during the nation’s deepest economic downturn in 40 years. Those added costs will results in layoffs that will only weaken the economy in the current recession, WRA notes.

Nowhere in the Senate health care bill could Epstein find any assurances that insurance companies could be guaranteed a minimum profit. Epstein suggests such an omission may be unconstitutional.